Saturday, June 16, 2012

Readers want stuff, information on how to live their lives, increased
incomes, a better world, how to make better films,
whatever – and if you can’t credibly get it to them, your message is
unpersuasive.

The only way to beat this overwhelmingly powerful system is to become a trusted messenger. like Seth Godin became a trusted messenger to thousands by writing valuable, helpful daily blog posts for years. He is so trusted that he was able to raise $300,000 for charity with one blog post.

In two days I am leaving the world of Starbucks, croissants and air conditioning for the Peruvian Amazon basin. The ecology of this area is amazing. It is one of the most biologically diverse places on the face of the earth. I brought a Canon S100 pocket camera. Hopefully many pictures to follow.

If all goes well the trip might turn into a series of articles, or possibly a book, but right now it's just exploration.

I am in Lima Peru this morning, on my way to the Amazon basin for two weeks of research on a personal project.

I
normally carry copies of my books when I travel. This time, before
leaving home I thought... "Get real. The Amazon? Who's going to want a
copy of Digital Video Secrets in a dugout canoe?"

The first
morning of my trip is a stopover in Lima. I go to the local Starbucks for a Cafe Americano Venti.
A woman stands next to me, filming her friends. I politely offer
to shoot so she can be in the picture with them. The young guy sitting
behind me equally politely explains they are shooting a film!

It's a small crew of four shooting a doc. Complete with shot list.

I
tell them i write books about film, and give them my card. I ask the director
to email me details of their film and I wish them well. Then I let them get on
with their work.

If there is a moral to this story i guess it is
always bring cards, and at least one or two of your books when you travel. Even
down the Amazon.

The worldwide hunger for film knowledge, and
the reach of the traditional book publishing and distribution system is astonishing. The day before I
left for Peru, I was at home exchanging emails with a reader in Tanzania!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Our beliefs make a profound difference how we respond to
challenges. Stanford
researcher Carol Dweck found that people tend to respond to challenges with one of
two distinct mindsets. She labeled these mindsets ‘growth’ and ‘fixed’.

After a loss, a person with a growth mindset thinks, “I have something to learn.” They set out to learn what needs to be changed, and move forward.

A person with a fixed mindset reacts to loss or failure by thinking,
‘I am a failure.’ The mindset, I am a failure, dooms any effort to change.

Dweck points out that these mindsets are only beliefs. And beliefs
can be changed.

Friday, June 8, 2012

A madly great documentary project by my friend Carl King. This is not my kind of music, but after watching Carl's trailer I want to see this film. Fascinating. Watch the trailer and see what you think.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A theme sentence is a powerful and necessary tool for writing nonfiction.

It is used to guide both writing and subsequent revision (because everything is revised). If something has to be cut, the theme shows what can go. If something needs to be added, the theme sentence shows what is missing.

There are three big problems in coming up with a good theme sentence:

1. Writing the theme sentence too early.
The underlying theme of any piece of writing may only become clear to the writer after
time-consuming and painful research. When writing something long--say over 5,000 words--the writer may not know the theme until he or she has done considerable thinking, analyzing, reading, and note taking. Writing the
theme sentence too early tends to limit the research, and stifle the writing.

2. Writing the theme sentence too late.
Writing the theme sentence too late often leads to bloated drafts that require major cuts during
revision. A bloated draft is not always bad. One way to find the underlying theme is to write a sprawling first draft. This is a perfectly acceptable way to find a theme, it's just a lot of work. It may mean writing one, two, or a dozen drafts of a book before the theme emerges.

3. Incomplete theme sentences.
The most effective theme sentences are fairly short. They have a Subject Verb Object construction,

A complete theme sentence might be: "Theme Directs Writing" The subject (theme) does something (directs) to the object (writing.) What is important? Finding the theme. Why is it important? Because the theme directs the writing. What's the point of this blog post? To show how a theme sentence directs writing, and why it is important to find it before beginning the first draft.

An incomplete theme sentence might be, "Theme is really important to writing." How is it important? Why is it important? What place does a theme sentence play in the writing? What's the point of this blog post? None of these questions are answered by an incomplete theme sentence.

It turns out this whole idea of selling to strangers is central to what Godin is teaching. Another Godin post on the subject, copied below:

And
if you want to do that fast, it means marketing to strangers. Strangers
that don't care about you, don't trust you and aren't listening to you.

You
market to a friend differently. A friend isn't necessarily someone you
went to summer camp with, it's someone who gives you the benefit of the
doubt. Someone who will listen, at least once, to your pitch.

I was talking to an author about his next project. The question I asked
him was, "are you writing this for strangers or friends?" The
implications are huge. It impacts how you design the cover, how you
price it, what it's about, where you sell it, when you publish it, how
much you pay for store displays, etc...

You need to treat friends
differently at every step along the way. First, don't confuse the
moments you're supporting them or connecting with them with the moments
when you are doing business. Second, understand that the most powerful
win is when your friends tell their friends about you. This is worth
1000 times more than you talking about yourself.

The cool thing is
that now, everyone has ten times as many friends as they used to. The
social graph online is a fascinating, exponential factor in growing the
list of people who might be willing to hear what you have to say (once).

Which means that your site and offer and products can be organized around friend selling instead of stranger setting.

Guaranteed: if you sell a friend the way you sell a stranger, you've made neither a sale or a friend.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

"A blog post for strangers needs a title like, “11 proven ways to
improve productivity,” while a blog that is aimed at subscribers and
long-time readers could be titled, “Try this!”

"Same goes for novels and other sorts of books.

"The novelist with regular readers doesn’t have to reintroduce each
character anew each time. The business book writer can ignore his editor
who clamors for complete clarity on every page, and actually engage the
audience as patient, thinking humans instead.

"Going forward, it’s difficult to imagine much scale in the stranger end of the business.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

A topic of value is the one thing that determines whether a blog post will get a lot of hits.

High traffic posts have something worthwhile to say. Something that matters. Something of value to the reader. It may take daily posting for a year or two or three, but eventually people with something to say will build a following.

Friend - Someone you know personally and trust. You probably meet them in person.

Fan - Someone who knows and likes your work. They have given you premission to contact them, and wait eagerly to hear what you have to say. A fan is an evangelist. He or she will tell other people about your work, attend your workshops, and buy your work. You may meet them once or twice at a workshop or event, and exchange emails. Or, you may never meet them.

Follower - Someone who likes your work. They may or may not have given you permission to contact them. A follower might tell other people about your work. They will buy occasionally, and might subscribe to an RSS feed to keep track of what you are doing. They generally support your work. You may never meet them.

Family - People you are related to by birth or marriage.

Stranger - All the millions and billions of people in the world. They don't know you, or your work, and they probably don't want to. Most of them have no interest in your work, and never will. It just doesn't mean anything in their lives.They have NOT given you permission to connect to or talk with them--and they never will.